40 Hours Over 6 Days Relic Hunting With The Minelab GPX 6000

[abenson]

Last week I went to Culpeper, VA to attend Diggin In Virginia 52 & 53. This is where 100,000 US troops spent the Winter or 1863-64 and the Battle of Brandy Station took place. This area is know for some of the worst dirt in the USA. Bury a nickel 5" deep and most VLF machines can't see it. On the other hand take a PI and you'll be digging targets the size of bullets 16-18" deep and larger items such as shell fragments and belt plates over 2 feet deep. To top it all off these farms have been pounded over the years so finds can be slim. That being said it's still fun for me to attend and catch up with the many friends I've made over the years and meet some new ones.

Now on to the particulars of the GPX 6000 as a relic machine. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I will never go back the GPX 5000 for gold or relics. The 6000 IMO is that good. Water resistant, interchangeable rechargeable battery, wireless headphones, light weight and compact. Everything the GPX 5000 isn't. The only thing the 5000 has the 6000 doesn't is iron reject and I can honestly say I don't miss it. I started beach and relic hunting with the Whites TDI that also lacked iron reject, so I had to learn what iron sounded like on a PI and this knowledge has transferred over to the 6000. Not saying I didn't dig any iron, but I don't fell like I dug any more than anyone using a 5000. Not only that ther are plenty of iron targets I want to find like horseshoes, artillery shells and fragments. I was a little concerned that EMI might be an issue with all the other GPX's present at this hunt. Things can get crowded in good producing areas. However, I found the 6000 to handle the EMI very well, as long as I was at least 30 feet from another machine or not under power lines. EMI for the most part was rock solid with no waiver most of the time. Now obviously I was wearing headphones with all those people around so I can't say if that would be different or not without them.

I used the 11" mono the entire time, ran the machine in difficult, sensitivity all the way down, threshold on. That's it! simple settings without having to worry about whether or not I had it setup right. Setup this way, the machine is plenty deep. In fact I had one of my buddies check a deep target I found with his 5000 wearing an 18" coil and he said he could barely hear it. On the 6000 it was a clear signal. Just think how deep you could go using normal timing with sensitivity all the way up. But there's a reason I run difficult timing and you can read my post here if you want to know why.

So below is a video and pictures of my finds. I found a lot more than shown like fired bullets and case shot that I just won't display. Also found about 6 artillery frags and only one is shown. I didn't find anything spectacular this time, but did have a great time and dug plenty of targets.

Top is an artillery frag and an iron ball used in canister shot, next picture shows what canister shot is. Round balls are case shot which is similar to canister shot. Eagle I cuff, Bullet is a confederate Gardner and finally the display I made.

[F350Platinum]

Great video and photos. I've only been to Culpeper once but I know what it's like. Seems like it was pretty good for both the D2 and the PI! I didn't see many coins but wouldn't expect many at this point in that place. 

Thanks for sharing your experience.

[GB_Amateur]

Nice video (as usual), Andrew.  Cursing a Wheat cent find -- you really know how to hurt a guy....    Just for that you're going to have to answer a bunch of questions:

Did you use the Deus 2 for all of DIV 52 and the GPX6000 all of DIV 53?  Was the ground mineralization considerably different between the two sites?

About what fraction of your bullet finds were Confederate?

Do you have an idea of the date of the animal trap?  Pre-CW?  CW?  Post-CW? 

Does the depth of targets give an indication of age there?  I figure the tilling of the ground mixes things up but some of your digs appeared to be in really hard packed clay -- doubt that gets tilled.

Good stuff and I appreciate you taking the time to tape and then edit, add music, and upload.

[Cal_Cobra]

Thanks for posting this, I enjoyed your video.

That looks like a ball buster hunt site!  Seems like we have better odds at our desert sites eh?

[abenson]

1 hour ago, F350Platinum said:

Great video and photos. I've only been to Culpeper once but I know what it's like. Seems like it was pretty good for both the D2 and the PI! I didn't see many coins but wouldn't expect many at this point in that place. 

Thanks for sharing your experience.

The D2 is pretty limited in depth like any VLF in that soil. Coins in general are hard to come by at Civil War sites. IHP are the most common find as far as coins go.

[abenson]

1 hour ago, GB_Amateur said:

Nice video (as usual), Andrew.  Cursing a Wheat cent find -- you really know how to hurt a guy....    Just for that you're going to have to answer a bunch of questions:

Did you use the Deus 2 for all of DIV 52 and the GPX6000 all of DIV 53?  Was the ground mineralization considerably different between the two sites?

About what fraction of your bullet finds were Confederate?

Do you have an idea of the date of the animal trap?  Pre-CW?  CW?  Post-CW? 

Does the depth of targets give an indication of age there?  I figure the tilling of the ground mixes things up but some of your digs appeared to be in really hard packed clay -- doubt that gets tilled.

Good stuff and I appreciate you taking the time to tape and then edit, add music, and upload.

LOL yea I've even cursed a walking liberty half once at one of those older sites.

I only used the D2 for about 2 hours the whole 6 days and that was in the trashy areas the GPX wouldn't work. Ground mineralization was aboutbthe same both places.

10% of the bullets were confederate.

I think the trap is post civil war.

The field have been plowed in the past. But some of the depth comes from winter huts being occupied by troops over the winter. A 2 foot deep hole was dug and then a log hut topped with a canvas tent made up their winter quarters.

Thanks glad you liked the video. Sometimes I wonder if it's worth it. Takes about 6-8 hours to edit and produce each video. But I figure if nothing else I can go back later and watch them myself as a reminder of the good time I had.

[abenson]

1 hour ago, Cal_Cobra said:

Thanks for posting this, I enjoyed your video.

That looks like a ball buster hunt site!  Seems like we have better odds at our desert sites eh?

I agree, I was just telling one of the guys I went with that I could drive 3 hours from my house and dig more stuff in a day than I dug all week. However, I can't find much Confederate stuff out west. Some of those Confederate bullets can fetch a few hundred bucks a piece.

[CPT_GhostLight]

That looks like a dream hunt to me and loved the video too! It makes me feel like I'm there with you when you find something cool. It's the next best thing to being there. Well done!

 

[Cal_Cobra]

14 hours ago, abenson said:

I agree, I was just telling one of the guys I went with that I could drive 3 hours from my house and dig more stuff in a day than I dug all week. However, I can't find much Confederate stuff out west. Some of those Confederate bullets can fetch a few hundred bucks a piece.

I guess that has to be the angle, I didn't realize some of those Confederate bullets were that valuable.  I see guys back south with 5 gallon buckets of dug bullets.  We don't find rebel relics out west, and I'm surprised we don't find something, buttons, buckles, or whatnot. A lot of Confederate soldiers migrated west after the war to start a new life, entire townships were started by them, so one would think rebel relics would turn up, but I've not heard of anyone finding anything.  Odd.